


The long shadow

by minutemarch



Category: Rush (2013)
Genre: Between races, Gen, I Don't Even Know, Thoughtful stuff, Vague premise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-07
Updated: 2013-10-07
Packaged: 2017-12-28 17:16:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/994519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minutemarch/pseuds/minutemarch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James wakes up after his British Grand Prix win with a slow urge to seek out the one guy who didn't make it to the after party.  What he finds surprises him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The long shadow

**Author's Note:**

> Why, yes, I am Spammy McSpammersen. Pleased to meet you.

A little more than 24 hours after his win on home turf James Hunt was in a good mood. It wasn’t just his victory, it was his nation’s, but the way he celebrated it didn’t change much. Girls (so very easy to come by considering) and booze (he hadn’t had to buy a drink all weekend.) Throw in a party crawl and a five star hotel and it was perfection or at least a perfect blur. 

The race had been messy. A restart, car trouble, a comeback in the dying stages. Niki had put up a good fight but it wasn’t good enough. Hunt could hardly feel bad about that as he rolled over the dark red covers on the over-sized bed. He was riding high. It was his day, his year, and he was damn well going to enjoy it. He took hold of the nearest warm body to his and smiled.

~

When James woke next he was alone. Someone (maybe him) had pulled one of the curtains from its rail allowing rude sunlight to bath his face. He was also on the floor and it took him a good minute to convince his contorted body to gather itself. He felt like he’d been run over. It was not an unfamiliar feeling to him. He knew what to do. Find water, take a shower, eat something greasy and gross and see where the day took him. He didn’t question the fact he was alone come morning. He was used to that too.

He stumbled into the plush shower and turned the water to hot, then back to quite warm when hot began to sting. There was soap in some neutral scent, a full-sized bar in a hotel this nice. It made the floor slippery and Hunt almost went down a few times. It took him a good 20 minutes to wash his hair once. Aside from the mechanical act of washing he had little to do, alone as he was, so his mind drifted to the rather obvious place, the racetrack. Niki had been so uppity, made such a big deal about the spare car. Most of what the intense Austrian complained about Hunt could laugh off or dismiss but he had hit Hunt where he lived this time and James had not been amused. He wasn’t giving what was his most personal victory up without a fight.

His (to him) righteous anger brought him a clear mind and he turned off the taps far more smartly than he’d turned them on. He toweled off in a hurry and padded into the main room to find his clothes. After some searching he was rewarded with a passable outfit. He checked his watch. A little after 8:30 am. Niki could have been gone from the hotel already but he thought he’d try.

Not surprisingly he hadn’t seen his rival at any of the post-race celebrations. Niki was rarely in the mood for a party on a good day and the 18th had not been a great day for Niki. James was glad it was still early. He didn’t feel like distractions now he was on a mission and later on the hotel would be much busier, more foot traffic, more interceptions. He took the fire escape down three flights and emerged into a blessedly still corridor. He didn’t even know for sure which room Niki had, having only a short, shared, elevator trip from a few days before to go on but it’s amazing how angry people weren’t to be woken by James Hunt on that particular morning. He’d had to sacrifice two autographs and a willingly shared kiss to reach his goal. He had no regrets (aside from not having time to stay for more than a kiss).

“What do you want?” said the taught voice on the other side of the fourth door. Hunt didn’t really get why Niki looked so worried most of the time, like he was afraid someone was always about to rob him of the one thing he couldn’t stand to lose. It really did make him look… ratty and James wasn’t a man to cling too tight to things, past or future. What would be would be and fear in the present robbed you of enjoying it. James Hunt couldn’t imagine living like that and was determined to encourage Niki to let go of at least some of it.

“I want to talk to you,” James said expansively. “From inside the same room would be nice.” He should have been angrier than he was, perhaps, but he knew deep down Niki was doing what he thought was right. Hunt knew (hoped?) his rival had too much respect for his and Hunt’s own abilities to resort to petty stunts to undermine him but it still bothered him. He knew Niki hadn’t acted alone either but Niki’s reaction was the one he cared about because Niki was the one he cared about, when it came down to it.

The door was pulled open with obvious caution as if the man inside expected his intruder would leap at him if given the chance. There it was, that face fixed in worry. Niki looked pale and James couldn’t leave that alone as he barged into the room, looking about calmly. “You need to get more sun,” he said. “Even Kent has a little to offer, in July.” Of course Niki was fully dressed and had most likely eaten his boring breakfast. He closed the door behind Hunt and moved away from it, leaving escape open.

“You are here. Now talk.”  
James smiled. He couldn’t help it. The snappier Niki got the wider James’ grin became. He didn’t mean to be rude, he just found it so damn amusing. James smiled. Niki glared back, waiting.  
Niki looked tired, which worried James a little. Wasn’t he the one who had slept upside down on the floor? Who’d boozed and banged his way through half the women in the hotel bar?  
The longer James watched him the more uptight Niki got till he had to break eye contact, by rolling his eyes, and stalked over to the fridge to pull out a soda for himself and only for himself. He didn’t drink it though, just put it on the bench and left it there, moving to lean on the counter. “I have things to do,” Niki said tightly. “I know what you’re going to ask. My answer is no so don’t ask.”

That was the invitation to leave but, of course, James didn’t take it. He wanted to argue but he’d tried that before when Niki was in a mood like this and he knew his friend would only dig his heels in deeper. It was his own fault really. He got exactly the reaction he expected. 

It wasn’t really a change of tack, it wasn’t as considered as that, but Hunt changed the subject he hadn’t even had a chance to raise. He moved closer to Niki, looking him up and down. His clothes didn’t look crumpled, his mass of curls didn’t looks messier than usual but something was off. “Did you sleep last night?” James asked, head cocked to one side, eyes concerned.  
“Of course I did,” Niki said, looking somewhere over James’ Hunt’s right shoulder, then at the floor.  
So he was having trouble sleeping and he didn’t want to talk about it. Interesting.

James moved a bit closer to his friend, his tone softer. “What is it?” He tried to guess. Was it the championship? The loss at Brands? (He’d not seen Niki look this cut up over a simple loss though.) Was it more personal? Bad news from home? Whatever it was Niki was having a hard time talking about it. That wasn’t a good sign, even from the taciturn driver.

Niki turned away from James, walked to the window, looked out on a quiet street just waking for the day. James didn’t move, held his breath as if afraid of spooking his friend into an even more prolonged silence. He felt like he was trying to coax a skittish deer to eat from his hand. He had a feeling the deer was close now though.

Niki breathed out, his face turned to the window but for a sliver of his profile. “What do you think about Germany?” Niki said softly.

Hunt’s first instinct was to make a joke but there was something in his friend’s tone, a seriousness, a... fragility. He took a breath. “I think it’s going to be tough,” he said honestly. All drives had a cautious respect for The Ring, at the least. He was a little surprised to hear what sounded like worry from the one who held the course record. Niki had owned it, he’d made The Ring his. Hunt knew Lauda had already calculated the risk, he knew the course as well as anyone. Had he missed something?

James didn’t have much time to wonder about it before Niki turned away from the window, physically shaking off whatever cloak of worry hung over him. He met James’ eyes properly for the first time since he arrived and nodded once. James knew then the subject was closed.

“What is good to eat here?” Niki asked. “You’re the local guide, yes?”  
James forced a bright smile. “You ever had beef Wellington?”  
“It sounds… complicated,” Niki curled his lip.  
“You’ll love it.” An unconvincing grin.  
“You’ll poison me.” A curled lip.  
“Nah. Breakfast of champions.”


End file.
